Labor Force Statistics from the Current Population Survey

Current Employment Statistics - CES (National)

Employment Situation News Release

Technical information:
Household data: (202) 691-6378 USDL 08-1252
http://www.bls.gov/cps/
Establishment data:(202) 691-6555 Transmission of material in this release
http://www.bls.gov/ces/ is embargoed until 8:30 A.M. (EDT),
Media contact: (202) 691-5902 Friday, September 5, 2008.
THE EMPLOYMENT SITUATION: AUGUST 2008
The unemployment rate rose from 5.7 to 6.1 percent in August, and non-
farm payroll employment continued to trend down (-84,000), the Bureau of
Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. In August,
employment fell in manufacturing and employment services, while mining and
health care continued to add jobs. Average hourly earnings rose by 7 cents,
or 0.4 percent, over the month.
Unemployment (Household Survey Data)
The number of unemployed persons rose by 592,000 to 9.4 million in August,
and the unemployment rate increased by 0.4 percentage point to 6.1 percent.
Over the past 12 months, the number of unemployed persons has increased by
2.2 million and the unemployment rate has risen by 1.4 percentage points,
with most of the increase occurring over the past 4 months. (See table A-1.)
In August, the unemployment rates for adult men (5.6 percent), adult women
(5.3 percent), whites (5.4 percent), blacks (10.6 percent), and Hispanics
(8.0 percent) rose, while the jobless rate for teenagers was little changed
at 18.9 percent. The unemployment rate for Asians was 4.4 percent in August,
not seasonally adjusted. (See tables A-1, A-2, and A-3.)
Among the unemployed, the number of persons who lost their last job rose by
417,000 to 4.8 million in August, with increases occurring among those on tem-
porary layoff and those who do not expect to be recalled to work. Over the last
4 months, the number of unemployed job losers has increased by 810,000. (See
table A-8.)
In August, the number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or
more) rose by 163,000 to 1.8 million, an increase of 589,000 over the past 12
months. The newly unemployed--those who were jobless fewer than 5 weeks--
increased by 400,000 over the month. (See table A-9.)
Total Employment and the Labor Force (Household Survey Data)
The civilian labor force, at 154.9 million, was about unchanged in August,
and the labor force participation rate remained at 66.1 percent. Total employ-
ment, at 145.5 million, was little changed from July. The employment-population
ratio fell over the month to 62.1 percent in August, down 1.3 percentage points
from its most recent high of 63.4 percent in December 2006. (See table A-1.)
In August, the number of persons who worked part time for economic reasons
was essentially unchanged at 5.7 million. This category includes persons who
indicated that they would like to work full time but were working part time
because their hours had been cut back or they were unable to find full-time jobs.
(See table A-5.)
The number of multiple jobholders increased by 298,000 in August to 8.1 million,
accounting for 5.5 percent of total employed. (See table A-6.)
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Table A. Major indicators of labor market activity, seasonally adjusted
(Numbers in thousands)
_______________________________________________________________________________
| | |
| Quarterly | |
| averages | Monthly data | July-
Category |_________________|__________________________| Aug.
| | | | | | change
| I | II | June | July | Aug. |
| 2008 | 2008 | 2008 | 2008 | 2008 |
_________________________|________|________|________|________|________|________
|
HOUSEHOLD DATA | Labor force status
|_____________________________________________________
| | | | | |
Civilian labor force ....| 153,661| 154,294| 154,390| 154,603| 154,853| 250
Employment ............| 146,070| 146,089| 145,891| 145,819| 145,477| -342
Unemployment ..........| 7,591| 8,204| 8,499| 8,784| 9,376| 592
Not in labor force ......| 79,146| 79,117| 79,237| 79,261| 79,253| -8
|________|________|________|________|________|________
|
| Unemployment rates
|_____________________________________________________
| | | | | |
All workers .............| 4.9| 5.3| 5.5| 5.7| 6.1| 0.4
Adult men .............| 4.4| 4.9| 5.1| 5.3| 5.6| .3
Adult women ...........| 4.3| 4.6| 4.7| 4.6| 5.3| .7
Teenagers .............| 16.8| 17.4| 18.1| 20.3| 18.9| -1.4
White .................| 4.4| 4.7| 4.9| 5.1| 5.4| .3
Black or African | | | | | |
American ............| 8.8| 9.1| 9.2| 9.7| 10.6| .9
Hispanic or Latino | | | | | |
ethnicity ...........| 6.5| 7.2| 7.7| 7.4| 8.0| .6
|________|________|________|________|________|________
|
ESTABLISHMENT DATA | Employment
|_____________________________________________________
| | | | | |
Nonfarm employment.......| 137,917| 137,699| 137,617|p137,557|p137,473| p-84
Goods-producing (1)....| 21,820| 21,565| 21,491| p21,443| p21,386| p-57
Construction ........| 7,384| 7,242| 7,196| p7,176| p7,168| p-8
Manufacturing .......| 13,690| 13,563| 13,527| p13,489| p13,428| p-61
Service-providing (1)..| 116,097| 116,134| 116,126|p116,114|p116,087| p-27
Retail trade (2)...| 15,434| 15,337| 15,324| p15,306| p15,286| p-20
Professional and | | | | | |
business services .| 18,063| 17,980| 17,927| p17,910| p17,857| p-53
Education and health | | | | | |
services ..........| 18,664| 18,823| 18,891| p18,942| p18,997| p55
Leisure and | | | | | |
hospitality .......| 13,660| 13,683| 13,679| p13,674| p13,670| p-4
Government ..........| 22,358| 22,439| 22,463| p22,469| p22,486| p17
|________|________|________|________|________|________
|
| Hours of work (3)
|_____________________________________________________
| | | | | |
Total private ...........| 33.7| 33.7| 33.7| p33.7| p33.7| p0.0
Manufacturing .........| 41.1| 41.0| 41.0| p41.0| p40.9| p-.1
Overtime ............| 4.0| 3.9| 3.8| p3.8| p3.7| p-.1
|________|________|________|________|________|________
|
| Indexes of aggregate weekly hours (2002=100)(3)
|_____________________________________________________
| | | | | |
Total private ...........| 107.4| 107.2| 107.0| p106.9| p106.8| p-0.1
|________|________|________|________|________|________
|
| Earnings (3)
|_____________________________________________________
Average hourly earnings, | | | | | |
total private .........| $17.81| $17.95| $18.00| p$18.07| p$18.14| p$0.07
Average weekly earnings, | | | | | |
total private .........| 600.80| 605.40| 606.60| p608.96| p611.32| p2.36
_________________________|________|________|________|________|________|________
1 Includes other industries, not shown separately.
2 Quarterly averages and the over-the-month change are calculated using
unrounded data.
3 Data relate to private production and nonsupervisory workers.
p = preliminary.
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Persons Not in the Labor Force (Household Survey Data)
About 1.6 million persons (not seasonally adjusted) were marginally attached
to the labor force in August, an increase of 275,000 over the past 12 months.
These individuals wanted and were available for work and had looked for a job
sometime in the prior 12 months. They were not counted as unemployed because
they had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey. Among the
marginally attached, there were 381,000 discouraged workers in August, little
changed from a year earlier. Discouraged workers are persons not currently
looking for work specifically because they believe no jobs are available for them.
The other 1.3 million persons marginally attached to the labor force in August
had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey for reasons such
as school attendance or family responsibilities. (See table A-13.)
Industry Payroll Employment (Establishment Survey Data)
Total nonfarm payroll employment continued to trend down (-84,000) in August.
Thus far in 2008, payroll employment has declined by 605,000, an average loss
of 76,000 per month. Employment continued to decline in manufacturing and employ-
ment services, while health care and mining added jobs. (See table B-1.)
Manufacturing employment fell by 61,000 in August. The largest decline
occurred in motor vehicles and parts (-39,000), which has lost 128,000 jobs
over the past 12 months. In August, employment also fell in 2 industries
related to home building--wood products (-7,000) and furniture and related
products (-7,000). Computer and electronic products manufacturing added
5,000 jobs over the month.
Within professional and business services, employment services lost 53,000
jobs in August; more than two-thirds of the decrease (-37,000) occurred in
temporary help services. Since its most recent peak in August 2006, employ-
ment services has lost 419,000 jobs.
Employment in both wholesale and retail trade continued to trend down over
the month. Within retail trade, motor vehicle and parts dealers shed 14,000
jobs. Since reaching a recent peak in April 2007, employment in motor vehicle
and parts dealers has fallen by 60,000.
Health care employment continued to grow in August (27,000), with more than
half of the gain in hospitals. Over the past 12 months, health care has added
367,000 jobs.
Employment in mining increased by 12,000 in August, with gains occurring in
all the component industries. Over the past 12 months, job growth has been
especially strong in support activities for mining (39,000) and in oil and
gas extraction (17,000).
Construction job losses in July and August averaged 14,000, compared with
an average monthly loss of 45,000 during the first half of 2008. In August,
residential specialty trade contractors lost 14,000 jobs; since a peak in
February 2006, employment in the industry has declined by 388,000.
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Weekly Hours (Establishment Survey Data)
In August, the average workweek for production and nonsupervisory workers
on private nonfarm payrolls remained at 33.7 hours, seasonally adjusted.
Both the manufacturing workweek, at 40.9 hours, and factory overtime, at
3.7 hours, fell by 0.1 hour over the month. (See table B-2.)
The index of aggregate weekly hours of production and nonsupervisory
workers on private nonfarm payrolls declined by 0.1 percent in August to
106.8 (2002=100). The manufacturing index fell by 0.9 percent to 90.5.
(See table B-5.)
Hourly and Weekly Earnings (Establishment Survey Data)
In August, average hourly earnings of production and nonsupervisory workers
on private nonfarm payrolls rose by 7 cents, or 0.4 percent, to $18.14, season-
ally adjusted. This followed gains of 5 cents in June and 7 cents in July.
Average weekly earnings rose by 0.4 percent in August to $611.32. Over the
past 12 months, average hourly earnings increased by 3.6 percent and average
weekly earnings rose by 3.3 percent. (See tables B-3 and B-4.)
______________________________
The Employment Situation for September 2008 is scheduled to be released on
Friday, October 3, at 8:30 A.M. (EDT).

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Frequently Asked Questions about Employment and Unemployment Estimates
Why are there two monthly measures of employment?
The household survey and establishment survey both produce sample-based
estimates of employment and both have strengths and limitations. The estab-
lishment survey employment series has a smaller margin of error on the mea-
surement of month-to-month change than the household survey because of its
much larger sample size. An over-the-month employment change of 104,000 is
statistically significant in the establishment survey, while the threshold for
a statistically significant change in the household survey is about 400,000.
However, the household survey has a more expansive scope than the establish-
ment survey because it includes the self-employed, unpaid family workers,
agricultural workers, and private household workers, who are excluded by the
establishment survey. The household survey also provides estimates of
employment for demographic groups.
Are undocumented immigrants counted in the surveys?
Neither the establishment nor household survey is designed to identify the
legal status of workers. Thus, while it is likely that both surveys include
at least some undocumented immigrants, it is not possible to determine how many
are counted in either survey. The household survey does include questions about
whether respondents were born outside the United States. Data from these ques-
tions show that foreign-born workers accounted for 15.7 percent of the labor
force in 2007 and 47.7 percent of the net increase in the labor force from 2000
to 2007.
Why does the establishment survey have revisions?
The establishment survey revises published estimates to improve its data
series by incorporating additional information that was not available at the
time of the initial publication of the estimates. The establishment survey
revises its initial monthly estimates twice, in the immediately succeeding
2 months, to incorporate additional sample receipts from respondents in the
survey. For more information on the monthly revisions, please visit
http://www.bls.gov/ces/cesrevinfo.htm.
On an annual basis, the establishment survey incorporates a benchmark
revision that re-anchors estimates to nearly complete employment counts
available from unemployment insurance tax records. The benchmark helps
to control for sampling and modeling errors in the estimates. For more
information on the annual benchmark revision, please visit http://www.bls.
gov/web/cesbmart.htm.
Has the establishment survey understated employment growth because it excludes
the self-employed?
While the establishment survey excludes the self-employed, the household
survey provides monthly estimates of unincorporated self-employment. These
estimates have shown no substantial growth in recent years.
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Does the establishment survey sample include small firms?
Yes; about 40 percent of the establishment survey sample is comprised of busi-
ness establishments with fewer than 20 employees. The establishment survey sam-
ple is designed to maximize the reliability of the total nonfarm employment esti-
mate; firms from all size classes and industries are appropriately sampled to
achieve that goal.
Does the establishment survey account for employment from new businesses?
Yes; monthly establishment survey estimates include an adjustment to account
for the net employment change generated by business births and deaths. The
adjustment comes from an econometric model that forecasts the monthly net jobs
impact of business births and deaths based on the actual past values of the net
impact that can be observed with a lag from the Quarterly Census of Employment
and Wages. The establishment survey uses modeling rather than sampling for this
purpose because the survey is not immediately able to bring new businesses into
the sample. There is an unavoidable lag between the birth of a new firm and its
appearance on the sampling frame and availability for selection. BLS adds new
businesses to the survey twice a year.
Is the count of unemployed persons limited to just those people receiving
unemployment insurance benefits?
No; the estimate of unemployment is based on a monthly sample survey of
households. All persons who are without jobs and are actively seeking and
available to work are included among the unemployed. (People on temporary
layoff are included even if they do not actively seek work.) There is no
requirement or question relating to unemployment insurance benefits in the
monthly survey.
Does the official unemployment rate exclude people who have stopped looking for
work?
Yes; however, there are separate estimates of persons outside the labor force
who want a job, including those who have stopped looking because they believe no
jobs are available (discouraged workers). In addition, alternative measures of
labor underutilization (discouraged workers and other groups not officially
counted as unemployed) are published each month in the Employment Situation news
release.

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Technical Note
This news release presents statistics from two major surveys, the Current
Population Survey (household survey) and the Current Employment Statistics
survey (establishment survey). The household survey provides the information
on the labor force, employment, and unemployment that appears in the A tables,
marked HOUSEHOLD DATA. It is a sample survey of about 60,000 households con-
ducted by the U.S. Census Bureau for the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
The establishment survey provides the information on the employment, hours,
and earnings of workers on nonfarm payrolls that appears in the B tables, marked
ESTABLISHMENT DATA. This information is collected from payroll records by BLS
in cooperation with state agencies. The sample includes about 160,000 businesses
and government agencies covering approximately 400,000 individual worksites.
The active sample includes about one-third of all nonfarm payroll workers. The
sample is drawn from a sampling frame of unemployment insurance tax accounts.
For both surveys, the data for a given month relate to a particular week or
pay period. In the household survey, the reference week is generally the calen-
dar week that contains the 12th day of the month. In the establishment survey,
the reference period is the pay period including the 12th, which may or may not
correspond directly to the calendar week.
Coverage, definitions, and differences between surveys
Household survey. The sample is selected to reflect the entire civilian
noninstitutional population. Based on responses to a series of questions on work
and job search activities, each person 16 years and over in a sample household
is classified as employed, unemployed, or not in the labor force.
People are classified as employed if they did any work at all as paid employees
during the reference week; worked in their own business, profession, or on their
own farm; or worked without pay at least 15 hours in a family business or farm.
People are also counted as employed if they were temporarily absent from their
jobs because of illness, bad weather, vacation, labor-management disputes, or
personal reasons.
People are classified as unemployed if they meet all of the following criteria:
They had no employment during the reference week; they were available for work at
that time; and they made specific efforts to find employment sometime during the
4-week period ending with the reference week. Persons laid off from a job and
expecting recall need not be looking for work to be counted as unemployed. The
unemployment data derived from the household survey in no way depend upon the
eligibility for or receipt of unemployment insurance benefits.
The civilian labor force is the sum of employed and unemployed persons. Those
not classified as employed or unemployed are not in the labor force. The unemploy-
ment rate is the number unemployed as a percent of the labor force. The labor
force participation rate is the labor force as a percent of the population, and the
employment-population ratio is the employed as a percent of the population.
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Establishment survey. The sample establishments are drawn from private nonfarm
businesses such as factories, offices, and stores, as well as federal, state, and
local government entities. Employees on nonfarm payrolls are those who received pay
for any part of the reference pay period, including persons on paid leave. Persons
are counted in each job they hold. Hours and earnings data are for private busi-
nesses and relate only to production workers in the goods-producing sector and non-
supervisory workers in the service-providing sector. Industries are classified on
the basis of their principal activity in accordance with the 2007 version of the
North American Industry Classification System.
Differences in employment estimates. The numerous conceptual and methodological
differences between the household and establishment surveys result in important dis-
tinctions in the employment estimates derived from the surveys. Among these are:
--The household survey includes agricultural workers, the self-employed, unpaid
family workers, and private household workers among the employed. These groups are
excluded from the establishment survey.
--The household survey includes people on unpaid leave among the employed. The
establishment survey does not.
--The household survey is limited to workers 16 years of age and older. The
establishment survey is not limited by age.
--The household survey has no duplication of individuals, because individuals
are counted only once, even if they hold more than one job. In the establishment
survey, employees working at more than one job and thus appearing on more than
one payroll would be counted separately for each appearance.
Seasonal adjustment
Over the course of a year, the size of the nation's labor force and the levels of
employment and unemployment undergo sharp fluctuations due to such seasonal events as
changes in weather, reduced or expanded production, harvests, major holidays, and the
opening and closing of schools. The effect of such seasonal variation can be very
large; seasonal fluctuations may account for as much as 95 percent of the month-to-
month changes in unemployment.
Because these seasonal events follow a more or less regular pattern each year,
their influence on statistical trends can be eliminated by adjusting the statistics
from month to month. These adjustments make nonseasonal developments, such as de-
clines in economic activity or increases in the participation of women in the labor
force, easier to spot. For example, the large number of youth entering the labor
force each June is likely to obscure any other changes that have taken place rela-
tive to May, making it difficult to determine if the level of economic activity has
risen or declined. However, because the effect of students finishing school in pre-
vious years is known, the statistics for the current year can be adjusted to allow
for a comparable change. Insofar as the seasonal adjustment is made correctly, the
adjusted figure provides a more useful tool with which to analyze changes in economic
activity.
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Most seasonally adjusted series are independently adjusted in both the household
and establishment surveys. However, the adjusted series for many major estimates,
such as total payroll employment, employment in most supersectors, total employment,
and unemployment are computed by aggregating independently adjusted component series.
For example, total unemployment is derived by summing the adjusted series for four
major age-sex components; this differs from the unemployment estimate that would be
obtained by directly adjusting the total or by combining the duration, reasons, or
more detailed age categories.
For both the household and establishment surveys, a concurrent seasonal adjustment
methodology is used in which new seasonal factors are calculated each month, using all
relevant data, up to and including the data for the current month. In the household
survey, new seasonal factors are used to adjust only the current month's data. In the
establishment survey, however, new seasonal factors are used each month to adjust the
three most recent monthly estimates. In both surveys, revisions to historical data
are made once a year.
Reliability of the estimates
Statistics based on the household and establishment surveys are subject to both
sampling and nonsampling error. When a sample rather than the entire population is
surveyed, there is a chance that the sample estimates may differ from the "true"
population values they represent. The exact difference, or sampling error, varies
depending on the particular sample selected, and this variability is measured by the
standard error of the estimate. There is about a 90-percent chance, or level of con-
fidence, that an estimate based on a sample will differ by no more than 1.6 standard
errors from the "true" population value because of sampling error. BLS analyses are
generally conducted at the 90-percent level of confidence.
For example, the confidence interval for the monthly change in total employment
from the household survey is on the order of plus or minus 430,000. Suppose the
estimate of total employment increases by 100,000 from one month to the next. The
90-percent confidence interval on the monthly change would range from -330,000 to
530,000 (100,000 +/- 430,000). These figures do not mean that the sample results are
off by these magnitudes, but rather that there is about a 90-percent chance that the
"true" over-the-month change lies within this interval. Since this range includes
values of less than zero, we could not say with confidence that employment had, in
fact, increased. If, however, the reported employment rise was half a million, then
all of the values within the 90-percent confidence interval would be greater than zero.
In this case, it is likely (at least a 90-percent chance) that an employment rise had,
in fact, occurred. At an unemployment rate of around 5.5 percent, the 90-percent con-
fidence interval for the monthly change in unemployment is about +/- 280,000, and for
the monthly change in the unemployment rate it is about +/- .19 percentage point.
In general, estimates involving many individuals or establishments have lower stan-
dard errors (relative to the size of the estimate) than estimates which are based on a
small number of observations. The precision of estimates is also improved when the
data are cumulated over time such as for quarterly and annual averages. The seasonal
adjustment process can also improve the stability of the monthly estimates.
- 10 -
The household and establishment surveys are also affected by nonsampling error.
Nonsampling errors can occur for many reasons, including the failure to sample a seg-
ment of the population, inability to obtain information for all respondents in the
sample, inability or unwillingness of respondents to provide correct information on a
timely basis, mistakes made by respondents, and errors made in the collection or pro-
cessing of the data.
For example, in the establishment survey, estimates for the most recent 2 months are
based on substantially incomplete returns; for this reason, these estimates are labeled
preliminary in the tables. It is only after two successive revisions to a monthly esti-
mate, when nearly all sample reports have been received, that the estimate is considered
final.
Another major source of nonsampling error in the establishment survey is the inabil-
ity to capture, on a timely basis, employment generated by new firms. To correct for
this systematic underestimation of employment growth, an estimation procedure with two
components is used to account for business births. The first component uses business
deaths to impute employment for business births. This is incorporated into the sample-
based link relative estimate procedure by simply not reflecting sample units going out
of business, but imputing to them the same trend as the other firms in the sample. The
second component is an ARIMA time series model designed to estimate the residual net
birth/death employment not accounted for by the imputation. The historical time series
used to create and test the ARIMA model was derived from the unemployment insurance uni-
verse micro-level database, and reflects the actual residual net of births and deaths
over the past five years.
The sample-based estimates from the establishment survey are adjusted once a year (on
a lagged basis) to universe counts of payroll employment obtained from administrative
records of the unemployment insurance program. The difference between the March sample-
based employment estimates and the March universe counts is known as a benchmark revision,
and serves as a rough proxy for total survey error. The new benchmarks also incorporate
changes in the classification of industries. Over the past decade, the benchmark revision
for total nonfarm employment has averaged 0.2 percent, ranging from less than 0.1 percent
to 0.6 percent.
Other information
Information in this release will be made available to sensory impaired individuals upon
request. Voice phone: (202) 691-5200; TDD message referral phone: 1-800-877-8339.

HOUSEHOLD DATA HOUSEHOLD DATA
Table A-12. Alternative measures of labor underutilization
(Percent)
Not seasonally adjusted Seasonally adjusted
Measure
Aug. July Aug. Aug. Apr. May June July Aug.
2007 2008 2008 2007 2008 2008 2008 2008 2008
U-1 Persons unemployed 15 weeks or longer, as a percent
of the civilian labor force....................... 1.5 1.9 2.1 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9 2.0 2.2
U-2 Job losers and persons who completed temporary
jobs, as a percent of the civilian labor force.... 2.3 2.9 3.0 2.4 2.6 2.8 2.8 2.9 3.1
U-3 Total unemployed, as a percent of the civilian
labor force (official unemployment rate).......... 4.6 6.0 6.1 4.7 5.0 5.5 5.5 5.7 6.1
U-4 Total unemployed plus discouraged workers, as a
percent of the civilian labor force plus
discouraged workers............................... 4.9 6.3 6.3 4.9 5.2 5.7 5.8 6.0 6.3
U-5 Total unemployed, plus discouraged workers, plus
all other marginally attached workers, as a
percent of the civilian labor force plus all
marginally attached workers....................... 5.5 7.0 7.1 5.5 5.8 6.4 6.4 6.6 7.0
U-6 Total unemployed, plus all marginally attached
workers, plus total employed part time for
economic reasons, as a percent of the civilian
labor force plus all marginally attached workers.. 8.4 10.8 10.7 8.4 9.2 9.7 9.9 10.3 10.7
NOTE: Marginally attached workers are persons who currently are neither working nor looking for work but indicate that they want and
are available for a job and have looked for work sometime in the recent past. Discouraged workers, a subset of the marginally attached,
have given a job-market related reason for not looking currently for a job. Persons employed part time for economic reasons are those
who want and are available for full-time work but have had to settle for a part-time schedule. For more information, see "BLS
introduces new range of alternative unemployment measures," in the October 1995 issue of the Monthly Labor Review. Updated population
controls are introduced annually with the release of January data.

HOUSEHOLD DATA HOUSEHOLD DATA
Table A-13. Persons not in the labor force and multiple jobholders by sex, not seasonally adjusted
(Numbers in thousands)
Total Men Women
Category
Aug. Aug. Aug. Aug. Aug. Aug.
2007 2008 2007 2008 2007 2008
NOT IN THE LABOR FORCE
Total not in the labor force........................... 78,717 78,719 29,813 29,986 48,904 48,734
Persons who currently want a job...................... 4,965 5,024 2,177 2,057 2,789 2,967
Searched for work and available to work now (1)..... 1,365 1,640 686 809 679 832
Reason not currently looking:
Discouragement over job prospects (2)........... 392 381 209 237 184 144
Reasons other than discouragement (3)........... 972 1,259 477 572 495 688
MULTIPLE JOBHOLDERS
Total multiple jobholders (4).......................... 7,221 7,706 3,690 4,040 3,531 3,666
Percent of total employed............................ 4.9 5.3 4.7 5.2 5.2 5.4
Primary job full time, secondary job part time..... 4,065 4,210 2,194 2,351 1,870 1,859
Primary and secondary jobs both part time.......... 1,490 1,755 475 614 1,015 1,141
Primary and secondary jobs both full time.......... 287 345 193 253 94 91
Hours vary on primary or secondary job............. 1,353 1,353 812 805 542 548
1 Data refer to persons who have searched for work during the prior 12 months and were available to take a job during the reference week.
2 Includes thinks no work available, could not find work, lacks schooling or training, employer thinks too young or old, and other types of
discrimination.
3 Includes those who did not actively look for work in the prior 4 weeks for such reasons as school or family responsibilities, ill health, and
transportation problems, as well as a small number for which reason for nonparticipation was not determined.
4 Includes persons who work part time on their primary job and full time on their secondary job(s), not shown separately.
NOTE: Updated population controls are introduced annually with the release of January data.